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Aerial Galleys
Aerial galley is a class of ancient ships that leviatated through the use of magnets , though not many scientists or historians agree on their reality . The hypothesis was put forward by Ernst Gullibel ( 1890 -1914 ) a German history researcher at the University of Duppelheim am Rotweil , in an unpublished book before he went missing in action in WWI . His thesis was later published in 1920 by Helmuth von Heinnuss (1888 - ? ) a fighter pilot in Luftstreitkrafte and a truck driver in the German Army of the Weimar period . German fascination with space travel can be related to the publishing of this book ; and von Heinnuss was reputedly involved in the development of new aircraft for the nascent Luftwaffe while diverting public funds to his bank accounts , covering his tracks by mythological stories and promises of invincible military might through historical artefacts . It has been suggested that after the Second World War he was hunted by both the Allies and the Nazis , though he survived by marketing Red Mercury to anyone who had an abundance of money and lack of sense. History Warning : This section has not been wholly accepted as accurate . According to the book Schiff am Himmel , a meteorite containing a very special kind of magnetic material crashed into the Taklamakan Desert in 2346 BC . Local tribesmen collected a few fragments and soon discovered the pieces of rock floated in air , in time becoming extremely valuable gifts and toys for the aristocracy of the emerging China . With centuries of observation the Chinese discovered the material would travel only in the general direction of North- South if inducted by electricity in any way . After decades of diligent work , in 1766 BC during the rein of Cheng Tang all the material was extracted and melted into ingots . A raft of aproximately 4 x 7 meters was built with a layer of the Flying Iron Brick (as the ingots become known) sandwiched between two wooden covers and when let free it carried 16 men of the Imperial Guard aloft . The intention was to build chariots of war pulled by teams of 9 horses but tacticians warned of possible loss of material in combat , and the Emperor ordered the destruction of the raft until a better solution was found . Still the Chinese started to call themselves the Middle Kingdom , as now they could fly unlike the earthbound other nations . Tactically the main problem was the risk of capture by hostile forces . Propaganda value of flying troops would be annulled if any enemy came to achieve the same ability and this risk could be averted if extremely large contingents onboard were available . Development of seafaring in the same period allowed construction of warships that could leviatate ; the idea was to tow them overland or above the sea as fortifications . Of the estimated 13 ships built in the third century BC , 9 were capable of 180 archers for combat and 34 swordmasters who were to fight off any enemy soldiers who could climb into the barges . A further contribution of naval research was the use of sails ; although the ships could not be moved in a controlled way with the sails , Chinese sailors crewing the ships discovered if they anchored the ships , they could use the sails to increase or decrease the under keel altitude , inspiring the attached philosophers team led by Mo-Tse to discover the principles of kites . Lu Ban , a student of Mo-Tse made the first man carrying kite , while the poet Chu Yun wrote the tactical field manual for the ships while directing towing tests in the unpopulated Gobi Desert . And it was during these tests that the Chinese came up with the chance discovery that made autonomous operations possible . Although they did not define electricity as such , they noticed static charges could influence the bricks to move North or South and they could control the direction ; leading to the discovery of the compass at the same time . The end result was that every ship was equipped with around 200 meters of wool thread and combs . Travelling in either direction to magnetic poles created a speed differential that allowed using the sails to achieve movement in 360 degrees . Now independent of ground contact , ships made ascents high into sky , one test finally mooring at the summit of a 4100 m high mountain after a 19 day nonstop endurance test . The altitude remains the highest ever recorded by an aerial galley . The ships were then sent on scouting expeditions around China , the fleet penetrating the Indian Sub-continent through present day Afghanistan seeing action against local states . The end result was that local authorities contracted their philosophers to write about Vimanas , flying vehicles of allied nations that would shortly arrive to fight the invaders . It is known the ships were then concentrated at the imperial court and given iron external structures , as a measure of both against fire arrows and lightning strikes . During an internal dispute in the first century AD the fleet commander seems to have supported the wrong faction and when he was charged with treason he took away the ships . Chinese authorities had to position siege machines such as catapults and very large crossbows at important cities and locations . To have a mobile reserve , rocket - arrows were hastily developed and put into service . When the dispute was solved peacefully the ships were either dismantled or taken away by desperate rebels to a distant location . The last record of an aerial galley is by the Byzantinian Governor of Syria in 625 AD , based on the account of an Arabian caravan guide . Umayyid and Abbasid Khalifates are thought to have ordered secret expeditions to find the ships and it is told that Al Mamun had a limited success in his men brought him a lenght of wire made out of magnetic material and weaved it into a carpet that flew . But the amount was not enough to make a chain mail , which was to desire of the Khalifa , who was in a civil war against his brother . It has been long suggested that the Chinese scrapped one or two ships to have "half weight - double thickness " armour for select infantry though the manual by Chu Yun advises against such uses and the present day Chinese movie directors' interest in depicting flying warriors in their films is not historically correct. Later influences Many attempts to fly in the Middle Ages depended on the discovery of the flying iron bricks , which was doomed to failure . Late in the 19th Century as the Orientalism took unshakeable roots and belittling of the East became second nature for the developed countries , the aerial galleys became another mocking point until Westerners became aware of the single toy in the Forbidden City ,a miniature of the first ever raft . The last emperor , Pu Yi is known to have cherish the model until it was lost in the 1911 Revolution. Considering the toy as a threat against the unsuperable power of the West , colonial powers especially England started widespread propaganda campaigns that they actually had the ships or they had the means to destroy them . Jules Verne's Robur the Conqueror or HG.Wells' Moon expedition with a ship made of Cavorite are the foremost examples . The last use of this phenomen is the 1909-14 wave of mystery airships which was funded by London and tried to discourage Germans from developing a Zeppelin fleet as the British ships already in existence could climb out of visibility of ground observers . It is certain that the Gullibel book was funded by Berlin to prove that British version of the events was a hoax especially with its refutation of extreme altitude capability. While Gullibel gives no explanation on why magnets can not go higher , von Heinnuss has opinioted the working mechanism is through waves and decreasing air density by 4 km altitude means the repulsive efficiency is no longer enough for carrying the bricks and ergo the ship ; although giving the ship legs might have help it ascending higher mountains as the iron legs would provide the contact medium with soil and the ship . Post war German commentators didn't believe this explanation and saw the magnets as a single stage to orbit system surprising even the British , though since the material was not available , the stress was laid on rockets . Nazis' obsession with flying saucers can be attributed to the same cause as well . The 1939 expedition to Himalayas , famous for one of its nembers , Heinrich Harrer , intented to search for the ships in the area . Failure in the attempt caused party hacks to come up with a detailed but unreal theory of magnetism to avoid punishment and probably only because von Heinnuss opposed it , the views became official German scientific aims , delaying German jet research significantly . George Lucas used the Gullibel book as an inspiration to create Jabba the Hutt's ship on Tatooine . Latest scientific research has given some clues to possibility of industrially manufacturing the material and one of most important experiments under the aegis of ITOL DUSO Foundation at CERN aims to establish the veracity of these claims .